Dr. Louis B. Daniel III, Director, Division of Marine Fisheries, hereby announces that effective at 12:01 A.M., Saturday, October 17, 2015, the following provisions shall apply to the use of gill nets south of Management Unit A (south of 35° 46.3000’ N latitude):

(i) For gill nets with a mesh length five inches or greater, it is unlawful:(1) To use more than 3,000 yards of gill net per vessel in internal waters regardless of the number of individuals involved.

The provisions below in this proclamation shall be complied with at all times.

II. AREA DESCRIPTIONS (See map):It is unlawful to use gill nets with a stretched mesh length of 4 inches through 6 ½ inches in Internal Coastal Waters except those described below (areas not listed below are closed to gill nets (including multi-panel trammel gill nets) with a stretched mesh length of 4 inches through 6 ½ inches; except as described in Section III.):

A. Management Unit B: Subunit listed below within the Internal Coastal Waters, bounded on the north by 35°46.3000’ N latitude, on the south by 34°48.2700’ N latitude which runs approximately from the Club House on Core Banks westerly to a point on the shore at Davis near Marker “1”, and on the west by 76° 30.0000’ W longitude.

Subunits not listed are closed to gill nets (including multi-panel trammel gill nets) with a stretched mesh length of 4 inches through 6 ½ inches; except as described in Section III. Subunit(s) in Management Unit B (that remain open) are described as:

1. MGNRA (Mainland Gill Net Restricted Area):
The area on the mainland side of Pamlico Sound, from the shoreline of Dare, Hyde, Pamlico, and Carteret counties out to 200 yards, between 76° 30.000’W and 75° 42.4200’W longitude lines.

B. Management Unit D2: all Internal Coastal Waters west of a line running from 34° 40.6750’ N – 76° 37.0000’ W to 34° 42.4800’ N – 76° 37.0000’ W then to the head of Turner Creek, and northerly up the western shoreline of the North River; and east of the NC Hwy 58 Bridge. Management Unit D2 includes Newport River (including the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Harlowe Creek up to NC Hwy 101 Bridge) and Bogue Sound.

C. Management Unit E: all internal Coastal Waters south and west of the Highway 58 Bridge to the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. This includes the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and adjacent sounds and the New, Cape Fear, Lockwood Folly, White Oak, and Shallotte Rivers.